TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court issued an opinion Friday clarifying two points of state employment law that potentially bolster a former Kansas Highway Patrol superintendent’s claim he was ousted from the law enforcement agency in violation of his right to remain after demoted to the rank of major.
The U.S. District Court judge considering former Superintendent Mark Bruce’s wrongful termination lawsuit requested the state’s highest court interpret points of state law to guide the federal court’s evaluation of the case. The judge said applicable state law was “not a model of clarity” and was clouded by the 2018 Legislature’s tinkering with the Kansas Civil Service Act.
The state Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case during an April out-of-town docket in Great Bend. At that time, Justice Dan Biles said the statute was so garbled it would require the Supreme Court dig deep to decipher intent of lawmakers.
Bruce was forced out in March 2019 as superintendent and colonel of KHP — he signed resignation and retirement papers — after Gov. Laura Kelly concluded he mishandled allegations Bruce’s second-in-command engaged in possible domestic violence in Missouri. Former Lt. Col. Randy Moon was investigated but not charged in a 2018 disturbance with a woman at a hotel in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Moon departed KHP along with Bruce.
In the subsequent federal lawsuit against Kelly, the governor’s...
Attorneys for three friends of Nolan Xavier Wells filed six more defamation lawsuits Tuesday in federal and state court, accusing social media users of making false claims about the young men in co...